About
Chelsea is an Early Childhood Educator with 10+ years experience. Her focus has been working in the Montessori setting with an emphasis on using farming, gardening and art as teaching methodologies. She and her family moved from Vancouver to a small farm in Westholme BC in 2015, and have slowly built a small organic market garden. Their son Barclay was born in 2019 and he has spent the majority of his first three years outside in the forest and on the farm at Westholme. Chelsea observed his confidence and strength grow through his independent exploration and unstructured play in the forest and on the farm, which inspired Chelsea to launch Up Top Farm Nature Program in 2022!
Pika is a certified Education Assistant who has worked in the school system alongside children with diverse needs. She is also trained in Nonviolent Crisis Prevention and Intervention, level 1 training with the Provincial Outreach Program For Autism & Related Disorders and is certified in Standard First Aid & CPR/AED Level C . Pika is a proponent of child-lead learning, independent exploration and play as a means of building confidence and sense of self. Her creativity, curiosity and love of the outdoors are in sync with our belief that forest school is the ideal environment to promote healthy developmental milestones in children as they grow and learn in the outdoor classroom.
Our farm is located close to the Halalt reservation and is situated on the traditional and unceded territory of the hul’q’umi’num-speaking Cowichan people. In such we endeavor to incorporate -where appropriate- teachings from local elders and worldviews about our relationship with the natural world.
